Ellis turnes the big 1-2 (months)!!!

Well, it happened.  Ellis decided to just turn 1 on Friday, no consultation with his boss. He seems so much more mature now!

We had a pretty fun day, which consisted of a 7:30 a.m. wake up (hey, thanks for the gift, dude!), a nice bottle of milk, a Happy Birthday phone call from his grandpa, opening of the gifts, eating of the eggs, then a nap, going to Party City to get some awesome helium-filled balloons... Going home and eating favorite meals (noodles),  taking another nap, then playing with dad when he got home from school.  From there we had a nice round of pizza for dinner and then our friends the Barrets came over and gave Ellis a cute little book that he loves flipping through, and we shared birthday cake!  Ellis ended his evening playing with all his fun gifts and going promptly to bed at 7:45, whilst the rest of us watched Breaking Dawn.

It was a pretty intense birthday.

On Saturday we took him to lunch at a Mongolian BBQ place - really, he wanted to go there! Where he feasted of course, on more noodles.  Then we made the trek to Petco so he could check out the weird little flying and swimming and crawling creatures they had- The Iowa-In-Winter Zoo!

Here are some pics from the day!

Breakfast and helping Dad use his awesome electric toothbrush!

Opening presents- a new toothbrush, legos, and a Thomas the Train set

 He's obsessed with this thing- best money we ever spent on a toy!

We went and got some balloons at Party City

He got a package in the mail from his Oma and Opa- 2 Disney movies and a new book!

Got to 'talk' to them on gchat

Blowing out candles with the Barrets

His other favorite 'toy'... This old little rocking chair, he loves to climb up on it all day long.

Mongolian BBQ on Saturday

At one, Ellis loves lots of things!
He loves the mobile above his crib,
watching videos of himself on our phones,
 fruit snacks, noodles, drinking out of his cups with straws,
playing in water, especially the bath,
 being thrown around by Dad, when Dad comes home, going to see Dad at school,
q-tips,
 handing me makeup while I get ready,
giving hugs,
 seeing animals outside,
 crawling crawling everywhere- especially new places,
 outlets and plugs,
 toothbrushes,
splashing in the toilet when we forget to close a bathroom door,
pulling all the tupperware out of the drawer,
opening cabinets,
playing with computers,
listening to dad's earphones while he studies,
shaking his head 'no', nodding his head 'yes',
eating stickers,
etc etc etc.

He's a busy kid! He is the sweetest little boy and loves to smile and laugh, and he has made the last year the funnest I've ever had! (and the most patience-trying, but right)
I can't wait to see him keep growing and see what kind of person he becomes, he's such a blessing to us and we love him so much!

This Chinese kid is not my friend, but I wish he was.





Those kids are my friends??? Austin, the one kissing the blonde girl (who he proposed to when they were hanging there mid-air) is the friend who came to Texas to play with us and cook for my wedding, and his brother Creighton is the first one in the video to jump. What a bunch a hooligans. Wish I could have been there, I'll just keep re-living all our Moab memories and pretend I am as adventurous and cool...

We still exist!

I know, dudes, it's been sooooo long! The thing is, we haven't really done much in the last month...
Ellis and I hang out around the house all day, most every day, with a sprinkling of playgroup, grocery store runs, and a few visits with friends thrown in.
It's not terribly exciting, I tell you!

Ellis is so fun right now, he is just hilarious and excited and crazy. He has the funniest facies and a loud laugh and he is very easy to make happy- but OH man, he can have an attitude!

He loves nodding (his new discovery), still shaking his head, growling, singing "oh na na" (the rhianna song!), jumping on the couch, eating stuff off the floor, among other interests.

Here are some pics/video from my phone lately!

A trip to the library includes climbing through shelves!

 Ellis is starting to enjoy flipping through books, I'm excited for him to finally take an interest in reading...

If Damon is around, Ellis will sit with him and quietly watch TV or play with a watch... He would never do this with me. (my phone has been messing up pictures)

 New passion- exploring the fridge, turning the light off and on, throwing all the food out...

Other passion- splashing toilet water. My phone messed this one up too, but if Ellis ever goes quietly missing, it's only seconds before I hear splashing and realize one of the bathrooms was left open.

MMMM, green smoothies!

The mesmerizing spinning wheel at the mall playplace.

Ellis other hobbies include taking q-tips out of the box one by one, and scattering laundry and makeup all over our room/bathroom.

His first time baking with me, kept trying to stick his hand in the kitchenaid, which never went well.

He loooooves his dad!

Since Ellis loves to climb all over the couch, it is a pain to have to sit there with him gaurding him from falling off it... Tonight Damon found a fun game to help encourage him to learn to get down on his own.